𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗
𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘜𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈
THE FIRE NATION VESSEL sailed through the cold and frigid waters of the South Pole at a velocity that ripped through the tides with ease and scarcely even caused the ship to rock against any of the waves that crashed into its metal exterior while nothing but ice and snow—along with the odd penguin—surrounded it for miles. It was chilly when Elua and Aang were brought to stand on the main deck of the ship, a guard posted on either side of them while the Fire Nation teen stood in front of them, where he examined their unopened gliders as if they were rare antiques to him.
"These staves will make excellent gifts for my father," the teenager spoke as he looked away from the objects and over at the two people in front of him. "I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers—being raised by monks," he dared in an attempt to get some kind of reaction out of the two Nomads, and unfortunately... it had worked, for one of them, at least.
Elua glared at him in annoyance before she spoke, "And, I suppose, you wouldn't know of mothers—being so void of empathy?" she asked with a snarl. It sounded harsh, even in her own opinion, but her defensive mind was on high alert because of this angry and insulting teen that stood before her with such ignorance.
"How dare you-!" the Fire Nation teen stopped as he almost shook in anger while he held himself back from potentially ending this young woman's life with a breath of fire blowing out from his nose and a sharp glare pointed at her. "Take the boy to the prison hold. And take these, to my quarters," he ordered through gritted teeth while he handed the staves off to a plump and graying man that stood beside him, which made him begin to walk away, a guard standing at his side as he went.
The guards grabbed onto Aang's arms again and started to drag him away from his sister with the Fire Nation teen's command. Such movements made Aang look back over his shoulder as he gave Elua a reassuring smile, but that didn't stop the worry that engulfed her senses, and she felt the immediate need to help him. Her very first instinct was to make the guards let go of him. However, before she could even take two steps forward, another two guards dragged a hold of her arms and kept her in place.
"Leave her," the irritable teen ordered his men, "I want a moment alone with the Avatar," he said cynically, and at that, his soldiers promptly stepped away before all of them bowed to the man in front of them and wordlessly walked away. Elua had nearly rolled her eyes when she heard him call her that. Had she really played the role so well that he would continue to believe such a hoax?
Elua quickly turned to face the destructive person that stood in front of her as she tried her hardest to push down the hatred that she was starting to feel for him, because hate, had always been something that the Monks and Nuns had taught was wrong. She promptly shook her head as the wind made her long dark hair flow over her eyes and block her line of sight while also bothering her as it did so. Her lips pursed in annoyance as she made a mental note to tie her hair back when she got the chance to... if she got the chance to.
"I have spent two years searching the world for you," the scarred teen informed Elua as he stood stoically in front of her. "Before me, my grandfather, and before him, his father. Decades of searching..." he trailed off ominously while he moved his arms behind his back and held them there whilst he spoke.
Elua looked at him in uncertainty and skepticism, "...thank you?" she asked as she raised a brow in question, which simply just made the other teenager angrier, and got herself another sharp glare of hatred in return for her sass.
She abruptly frowned as she squinted her eyes and stared at the teen in front of her. She couldn't shake this feeling of familiarity that washed over her when she looked at him, but it wasn't more than a few seconds before her expression softened, and she stood back up straight as a look of realization fell over her features. Her eyes cast away from him and down to the metal floor that she stood upon as she inhaled a deep breath of the frigid air before she exhaled it in a cloud of fog... it all made the Fire Nation teen frown at her in complete confusion of what was wrong with her.
"You..." Elua trailed off as she glanced back up at him, "...you kind of look like your grandfather," she told him with a softened tone and anguish lingering in her eyes.
The words that she had just spoken made the Fire Nation teen take half a step backward as a look of shock fell over his already confused expression. It could not be possible for this Air Nomad girl to know what his grandfather looked like, and he was sure of that. His facial expression instantly turned back to one of outrage as another glare replaced his frown, while hatred took over every other emotion displayed on his face, and he opened his mouth to say something back to her—however, the sound of someone shouting muffled words from below the deck, prompted both of the teens to turn around in confusion at the same time.
It only took them both half of a second to spot Aang as he ran back up the lower stairs that he had just been guided down a few minutes prior to this moment. He didn't waste a single second before he sent a strong gust of air at the scarred Fire Nation boy that stood in front of his sister, which made him fly backward with a shout of unexpected shock and soon hit the metal floor with a thud that sounded rather painful. Elua winced at the noise while she watched it all happen in front of her eyes. However, a part of her still felt as if he had deserved that, and she was well aware that it was very un-nomadic of her to think such a thing.
Aang continued with his sprint after getting the teen out of his way and quickly grabbed onto Elua's wrist before he rushed them both through an open doorway at the end of the main deck. It led into a small room with a ladder in the middle of it. He soon let go of his sister's hand as the two of them swiftly began to climb up the metal scale, both of them attempting to make haste in their escape, as they were well aware that the teen who had captured them would not be far behind in their tracks.
Elua sent a gust of wind up and around the metal rungs that she and her brother held onto. It forced the hatch above of them open before the both of them jumped up and into the main control room of the large navy ship. She had made such a sudden crack echo against the metal walls that it made the one and only working person—who was busy with his job of keeping the ship on course and sailing it through the ocean waves—eyes widen in shock as he turned his gaze over his shoulder to look at them with a heavy sense of confusion.
Aang paid the working man no mind as he tossed Elua's staff over to her before they both ran out of the control room and out onto the open railed watchtower of the vessel that they were about to escape from. He threw his arms out to his sides as soon as the breeze had hit his face, a relieved smile appearing upon it, while he and his sister both opened their gliders and proceeded to throw them out in front of themselves where they quickly caught onto the icy winds. It was time for them to leave.
The two of them jumped off of the tower together before they grabbed onto the front wooden handlebar of their gliders and swept down as they began to fly off. But, before Aang could get far enough away from the ledge, a specific Fire Nation fellow jumped off of the rail behind them with a shout of anger echoing from his throat, and came down to grab onto the young Airbender's ankle.
Elua's eyes went wide with fear as she turned and watched the scarred boy drag her brother back down to the ship, "Aang!" she shouted when the two fell out of the sky and landed back onto the metal deck with a resonant thud.
She swiftly lent towards her left, which caused her to turn back around, and soon began to sweep back towards the large metal ship. It wasn't even a second later did she hear a familiar roar, a sound that provoked her attention to divert away from her brother, and look out towards the skyline in front of her. It was Appa. He flew regally towards the ship that was below her. A sight such as him made her smile, and as soon as she had found that Sokka and Katara were sitting on top of the bison's saddle, that smile only grew into a brighter one... but it faded into nonexistence all too soon.
Elua looked back down towards the ship at the sound of fire blasts and found the Fire Nation teen to be attacking her brother on the deck. She quickly shifted her weight downward at the sight, which caused her to lose altitude at a speedier rate and near the large navy ship while Aang tried to fight back against the Firebender. Sadly, before she could reach her little brother and save him from such a reckless teenager, Aang was thrown overboard and plummeted straight into the freezing cold water below them with a drowning crash.
"NO!"
Her heartwrenching scream of distress echoed against the ice and snow while it was carried through the winds as her feet landed back onto the metal floor. She rushed over towards the ledge of the ship that Aang had fallen off of and looked down into the sea, but she could not locate him anywhere within the water due to all of the waves that crashed against the ship, and it had to be far too cold for her to jump in and survive long enough to save him. Katara's cries of sorrow only made her heart hurt more as she heard them form up in the sky along with Appa's roars of despair.
The sudden sound of whooshing fire caught Elua's attention again. She quickly turned back around, and immediately as she did so, a sight of brilliant red and orange lighted flames were headed straight for her. He had taken her distracted state of mind and used it to his own advantage. She didn't waste a single second before she ducked out of the way and just barely missed the heat of it. However, the Fire Nation teen didn't stop his attack there, and soon sent another blast of flames at her... then another... and another. Elua dodged each of the balls of fire while also ensuring that she sustained no injuries with her defensive actions.
He angrily sent three more blasts towards her; one on her left, one on her right, and the last one headed straight for her at a high velocity. The sight of them made her eyes go wide in panic as she threw her arms out at her sides, stepped to the side, and brought her arms closer to her body before she threw them back out in front of herself and sent all three of the flames right back at the teenager in front of her. Luckily for him, none of the flames hit his body, as he had ducked out of the way just in time for them all to miss him.
The Fire Nation teen looked back at the scorch marks now burned into the back ledge of his ship with a shock before he turned back to her, "I should have known that you could already bend all four elements!" he shouted at her with a glare of hatred and angrily balled his hands into fists of rage.
"No," Elua said as she shook her head, "There is something far more important that you should have known," she told him while she straightened up her posture and lifted her head with a look of determination fallen over her face. "I am not the Avatar!"
As soon as those five honest words had left her mouth, a whirlpool of water came bursting out of the ocean waves like a broken pipeline, and at the top of its tall stature... was Aang. His eyes and all of his tattoos glowed such a light blue that they were nearly white as moonlight. Every single person that stood below him stared up at him in shock, fear, and awe before he jumped back onto the deck of the ship and bent all of the water around himself in a circular motion. He pushed his arms outward and sent the seawater hurtling towards the Fire Nation soldiers and made all of them fall overboard with shouts of shock and panic.
It all ended almost as quickly as it had happened after that. Aang immediately fell out of the Avatar State and tumbled to the cold metal floor as the exhaustion set in. Elua gasped as her eyes went wide before she rushed over to him, where she stooped down beside him and rested his head on her folded legs, a rather heavy look of worry in her eyes. He then weakly opened his eyes and looked up at her with a small smile that she gladly returned back to him.
She turned her head away from her brother at the sound of Appa roaring from up in the sky again. A bigger smile fell over her face when she spotted the giant bison just as he landed onto the ship, with two familiar Water Tribe siblings still atop of the saddle on his back, both of which looked extremely worried. It felt good to see the two of them again—even if one of them had banished her and her brother only a few hours ago.
Katara gasped as she hopped off of the bison and ran over towards the two of them, "Aang, are you alright?" she asked in worry while she knelt on the other side of the boy.
"Hey, Katara," Aang said with a drained smile on his face. "Hey, Sokka," he said again with a raspy sounding voice as he nodded in hello. "Thanks for coming."
Sokka looked down at him with a joking smirk on his face, "Well, I couldn't let you have all the glory, could I?" he asked as he humorously shrugged his shoulders in a way that made Elua chuckle before she gave him a silent and thankful smile.
Aang groaned in pain while he glanced over the three people surrounding him with concern, "I dropped my staff," he infrared them as he looked towards an edge of the ship, where his wooden glider had fallen when he fell, which they all saw was now laid halfway over the ledge he looked towards.
"I got it," Sokka told him as he quickly stood back up to his feet and walked over to pick the staff up from the ground while Katara and Elua began to help Aang towards Appa.
It wasn't even a moment later that Elua turned away from helping her brother when the sound of someone yelling caught her attention. It was Sokka. He yelled at something over the edge of the ship, seemingly down at the empty ocean, but there hadn't been enough time for her to go see what the problem was before several Fire Nation soldiers stood back up from the soaked metal floor that they had been forced down to only a few minutes ago.
All of them held out their sharpened spears and readied themselves to attack once again. Katara glared at them. It was clear that this young Waterbender had no more patience to put up with any more violence from these people today as she took quite the bending stance and readied herself to attack as well. She shuffled her feet across the slippery deck and held her hands out in front of herself, but the soldiers continued to inch closer to the three of them, obviously having no fear of this young waterbending girl as she was only a child... wasn't she?
"Katara!"
Elua quickly glanced back down from where she had been busy helping Aang get up and onto Appa, where she saw Sokka—now frozen to the deck of the ship—trying to get himself out of the ice that his sister had accidentally frozen his feet in, while the Fire Nation soldiers were still stood in front of the young Waterbending girl as she stared at them with wide eyes filled with fear and uncertainty.
Katara peered back at her brother with an apologetic look on her face before she turned back away from him again. She took a deep breath and focused on the feeling of the water that surrounded her as she lifted her arms back up and began to bend the sea off of the metal floor, and then, threw it out in front of herself with her eyes sealed closed with uncertainty if it would work... but it did, and she had successfully frozen all three of the Fire Nation soldiers in their place.
Katara peeked her eyes back open and stared at her handiwork in astonishment and awe for a moment. However, knowing that they still needed to get out of here, she shook off her disbelief and whirled away from the soldiers as she ran over and climbed back onto Appa with Elua's helpful hand.
"Hurry up, Sokka!"
His sister's words made him grumble in annoyance, "I am just a guy with a boomerang. I didn't ask for all this flying and magic!" he spoke to himself before he finally got himself free of the ice, and then rushed over to the other three people of whatever newfound group they were. "Yip yip! Yip yip!" he shouted in a frantic tone while he ran up Appa's tail and reached the saddle just in time for them to take off.
It seemed that they had been able to leave the danger behind them, but just when they had thought that they were free to escape, a certain scarred teen forced some kind of giant fireball into the air with help of the greying man from before and made it line up to collide with them. Their eyes widened in horror at the sight of its blazing flames. Elua immediately stood back up to her feet before she rushed over towards the back of Appa's saddle, where she grabbed hold of her staff, and found confidence in using it as an aid for a huge gust of air that went flying at the fireball.
It made the object swerve away from them and soon hit the side of an icecap above the navy vessel, burying it in a heavy bank of snow, and allowed them to get away without so much as a scratch... leaving the angry Fire Nation teenager to dig himself out of the wreckage.
⇢⇢⇠⇠
"How did you do that?" Katara asked in wonder as she smiled and stared at Aang with admiration for what he had done only a short while ago. "With the water? It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" she said with a look of excitement in her blue eyes.
"I don't know. I just sort of..." Aang trailed off from where he cross-legged as he looked away from the young Waterbender, "did it," he said with a downcast look on his face.
Katara's shoulders loosened up at his expression and tone before she spoke again, "Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" she asked softly as she kept her eyes on the young Air Nomad boy while her brother sat behind her with a completely confused look on his face.
Aang glanced back at her with a standoffish look, "...because I never wanted to be," he told her before he slowly turned away from her once again with a look of shame overtaking his appearance.
"But, Aang, the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war," Katara informed the boy in front of her as the loops of her braided hair blew within the chilly breeze.
Aang sighed, "And how am I supposed to do that?"
"According to legend, you need to first master water, then earth, then fire," Katara said as she listed the three remaining elements he had yet to learn control over, "right?"
"That's what the monks told me," Aang said with a shrug of his shoulders and a tone that sounded heavy with uncertainty and indifference.
"Well, if we go to the North Pole, you can master waterbending," Katara told him with an excited tone, and that made him sit up straight again.
"We can learn together!" Aang exclaimed as his mood quickly perked up.
"And Sokka," Katara spoke to get his attention, "I'm sure you'll get to knock some Firebender heads along the way," she told her brother with half of a smirk on her face.
Sokka grinned at his sister's words, "I'd like that. I'd really like that," he sighed as he leaned back and smiled with an almost dream-like gaze. "One question, though: who is actually the Avatar?" he asked, pointing between Aang and Elua, still having no idea which one was who.
"Did you not hear a single thing that was just said?" Katara asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a look of annoyance while she leaned back.
"No, no," Sokka began, "I heard it. It was just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo," he said as he shrugged his shoulders with a bored look on his face while Katara rolled her eyes at him and his words.
Elua held back a laugh as she shook her head, "Aang is the Avatar," she spoke with her back turned to them while she held onto the reins.
"How did you bend the fire away from you back on the ship then?" Sokka asked in confusion as he pointed towards the skyline behind them with his thumb.
"Oh, yeah," Katara said as she looked over towards Elua with a frown. Sokka's inquiry raised confusion within her as well. "I thought you were an Airbender?"
"I am," Elua stated as she let go of the reins and stood up before she turned around and walked over to sit with them. "There is oxygen that lives in everything around us– especially fire," she explained to them, which caused the two Water Tribe teens to look at her in shock, wonder, and awe of her abilities.
"You can bend the air in everything around you?" Katara asked, and Elua nodded in confirmation, which made the Waterbender smile in awe again. "That's amazing!" she said in astonishment and made Elua laugh gratefully at her excitement over something that felt so simple to her.
Aang suddenly cleared his throat as he broke into the conversation, "Okay, now that that's all cleared up... before I learn waterbending, we have some serious business to attend to," he said as he airbent himself off of the edge of the saddle and laid out a map in front of everyone. "Here, here, and here," he said as he pointed to various spots on the chart.
Katara smiled as she looked down, "What's there?" she asked as she pointed down at the map in interest.
"Here, we'll ride the hopping llamas," Aang told her as he pointed to a place that was somewhere within the Earth Kingdom, "than way over here, we'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish," he continued as, this time, he pointed to a place near the Southern Air Temple, "then back here, we'll ride the hog-monkeys–they don't lie people riding them, but that's what makes it fun!" Aang said with a laugh as a big smile broke out across his face while he explained everything to his newfound friends.
Elua smiled at her little brother as she was relieved that he was okay and happy again after such a day of trials. She sighed in blissfulness as she turned her gaze away from the three people that sat around her as she looked out at the clouds, where she observed sunbeams that were beginning to shine through the fluffy white mixtures of air and water surrounding them, and watched as the stars made their way into the sky once again.
She had a strong feeling that life was about to get even crazier than it had been before all of this... and boy, was she right.
⇠┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⇢
𝘼/𝙉:
𝘼 𝙗𝙞𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 @𝘽𝙪𝙧𝙗𝙨𝙄𝙣𝙎𝙩𝙪𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙀𝙡𝙪𝙖'𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜! 𝙄𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮. 𝙎𝙤, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝, 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚!
-𝙇𝙪𝙘𝙮.